r well and regularly fed, often buries, like the fox, any superfluous
food; and we see him turning round and round on a carpet, as if to trample
down grass to form a bed; we see him on bare pavements scratching backwards
as if to throw earth over his excrement, although, as I believe, this is
never effected even where there is earth. In the delight with which lambs
and kids crowd together and frisk on the smallest hillock, we see a vestige
of their former alpine habits.

We have therefore good reason to believe that all the domestic races of the
pigeon are descended either from some one or from several species which
both roosted and built their nests on rocks, and were social in
disposition. As only five or six wild species with these habits and making
any near approach in structure to the domesticated pigeon are known to
exist, I will enumerate them.

Firstly, the _Columba leuconota_ resembles certain domestic varieties
in its plumage, with the one marked and never-failing difference of a
white band which crosses the tail at some distance from the extremity.
This species, moreover, inhabits the Himalaya, close to the limit of
perpetual snow; and therefore, as Mr. Blyth has remarked, is not likely
to have been the parent of our domestic breeds, which thrive in the
hottest countries. Secondly, the _C. rupestris_, of Central Asia, which
is intermediate[322] between the _C. leuconota_ and _livia_; but has
nearly the same coloured tail with the former species. Thirdly, the
_Columba littoralis_ builds and roosts, according to Temminck, on rocks
in the Malayan archipelago; it is white, excepting parts of the wing
and the tip of the tail, which are black; its legs are livid-coloured,
and this is a character not observed in any adult domestic pigeon; but
I need not have mentioned this species or the closely-allied _C.
luctuosa_, as they in fact belong to the genus Carpophaga. Fourthly,
_Columba Guinea_, which ranges from Guinea[323] to the Cape of Good
Hope, {183} and roosts either on trees or rocks, according to the
nature of the country. This species belongs to the genus Strictoenas of
Reichenbach, but is closely allied to true Columba; it is to some
extent coloured like certain domestic races, and has been said to be
domesticated in Abyssinia; but Mr. Mansfield Parkyns, who collected the
birds of that country and knows the species, informs